“Continuing a history of surprising behavior, material from Comet ISON appeared on the other side of the sun on the evening of Nov. 28, 2013,” states information from NASA on Friday.

The 4.5-billion-year-old space rock — described by the Associated Press as “basically a dirty snowball from the fringes of the solar system” — came within 1 million miles of the sun Thursday. As it got close, the roughly two-thirds of a mile wide comet disappeared from NASA's observatories and many scientists thought it had entirely disintegrated, reports NASA. The comet reappeared later as a streak of bright material heading away from the sun.

“Late-night analysis from scientists with NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign suggest that there is at least a small nucleus intact,” says NASA.